Fifth Third Bank increased its tech spend during the third quarter and is working toward full digitization of its mobile banking capabilities for the remainder of the year.
The $205 billion bank’s noninterest expenses during the quarter fell year over year, but the bank remained committed to increasing its tech investments during the quarter, which “reflected continued modernization investments,” according to the earnings presentation.
The Cincinnati-based bank reported for Q3:
- Noninterest expenses fell slightly YoY to $1.16 billion from $1.17 billion in Q3 2021;
- Total revenue grew 7% YoY to $2.1 billion;
- Technology and communications spend rose 8% YoY to $106 million; and
- The bank clocked more than 2 million mobile banking users to date.
Fifth Third also continued migrating its mobile app to the cloud in Q3 to provide better customer experiences, Chris Doll, senior vice president and head of investor relations at Fifth Third, said during today’s earnings call.
“We successfully migrated on more platforms to a new data center, and now virtualized over 90% of our servers, strengthening network resiliency, increasing speed and capacity, and improving the experience for both our customers and employees,” Doll said.
“In the fourth quarter, we’ll relaunch our mobile app and a new cloud-based architecture and will several improvements and user experience,” he added.
Meanwhile, Citizens Financial Group announced during its Q3 earnings call Wednesday that it, too, is reworking its mobile app.
Cloud migration for customer connection
Fifth Third’s increased technology investment is in line with the bank’s Q2 efforts, with a focus on new automations in check processing, detecting fraudulent copycat websites, and better customer insights into products and services to fit client needs, according to the earnings presentation.
Looking to Q4, the bank expects cloud migration to allow for more streamlined customer connection, Doll noted.
“I think we have done a very good job being able to integrate the digital investments that we make, and the access to a human being in the local market,” he said. “We talk a lot about the ways in which we use analytics and other direct connection points to make sure that is a seamless experience for customers.”
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